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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/gitcli.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/gitcli.txt | 33 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 11 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt index 4b32876..7c70932 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt @@ -19,6 +19,15 @@ Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their arguments. Here are the rules: + * Options come first and then args. + A subcommand may take dashed options (which may take their own + arguments, e.g. "--max-parents 2") and arguments. You SHOULD + give dashed options first and then arguments. Some commands may + accept dashed options after you have already given non-option + arguments (which may make the command ambiguous), but you should + not rely on it (because eventually we may find a way to fix + these ambiguities by enforcing the "options then args" rule). + * Revisions come first and then paths. E.g. in `git diff v1.0 v2.0 arch/x86 include/asm-x86`, `v1.0` and `v2.0` are revisions and `arch/x86` and `include/asm-x86` @@ -28,12 +37,12 @@ arguments. Here are the rules: they can be disambiguated by placing `--` between them. E.g. `git diff -- HEAD` is, "I have a file called HEAD in my work tree. Please show changes between the version I staged in the index - and what I have in the work tree for that file", not "show difference + and what I have in the work tree for that file", not "show the difference between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole". You can say `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter. * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors - out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a + out and asks you to disambiguate when ambiguous. E.g. if you have a file called HEAD in your work tree, `git diff HEAD` is ambiguous, and you have to say either `git diff HEAD --` or `git diff -- HEAD` to disambiguate. @@ -72,24 +81,21 @@ you will. Here are the rules regarding the "flags" that you should follow when you are scripting Git: - * it's preferred to use the non-dashed form of Git commands, which means that - you should prefer `git foo` to `git-foo`. - - * splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` + * Splitting short options to separate words (prefer `git foo -a -b` to `git foo -ab`, the latter may not even work). - * when a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In + * When a command-line option takes an argument, use the 'stuck' form. In other words, write `git foo -oArg` instead of `git foo -o Arg` for short options, and `git foo --long-opt=Arg` instead of `git foo --long-opt Arg` for long options. An option that takes optional option-argument must be written in the 'stuck' form. - * when you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is + * When you give a revision parameter to a command, make sure the parameter is not ambiguous with a name of a file in the work tree. E.g. do not write `git log -1 HEAD` but write `git log -1 HEAD --`; the former will not work if you happen to have a file called `HEAD` in the work tree. - * many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated + * Many commands allow a long option `--option` to be abbreviated only to their unique prefix (e.g. if there is no other option whose name begins with `opt`, you may be able to spell `--opt` to invoke the `--option` flag), but you should fully spell them out @@ -126,6 +132,11 @@ usage: git describe [<options>] <commit-ish>* --long always use long format --abbrev[=<n>] use <n> digits to display SHA-1s --------------------------------------------- ++ +Note that some subcommand (e.g. `git grep`) may behave differently +when there are things on the command line other than `-h`, but `git +subcmd -h` without anything else on the command line is meant to +consistently give the usage. --help-all:: Some Git commands take options that are only used for plumbing or that @@ -211,8 +222,8 @@ only affects the files in the working tree, but with entries, and with `--cached`, it modifies only the index entries. -See also http://marc.info/?l=git&m=116563135620359 and -http://marc.info/?l=git&m=119150393620273 for further +See also https://lore.kernel.org/git/7v64clg5u9.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net/ and +https://lore.kernel.org/git/7vy7ej9g38.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org/ for further information. Some other commands that also work on files in the working tree and/or |